Village considers credit card convenience fee

ELBURN—Residents will soon be required to pay a convenience fee of $2 when they pay village bills and fees with their credit card.

Village Board members on Monday discussed the fee recommended by Village Finance Director Doug Elder to help cover the village’s cost of accepting credit.

Elder said that the village had 859 credit card transactions last year, which cost it an additional $2,153. The average cost to the village comes to approximately $2.51 for each time it has to process a credit card payment.

Elder said the proposed convenience fee won’t cover the entire cost to the village for processing such transactions, but “it will help to cover some of it.”

The village will only accept credit cards for transactions of a minimum of $15 and up to a maximum of $1,000.

The range will cover most village fees, such as water bills, parking tickets and permits. Since debit card transactions don’t cost the village anything, the fee will not apply to those.